A study by a team of University psychologists and other researchers in the Collaborative Initiative on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (CIFASD) finds that partners of mothers-to-be can directly influence a pregnant woman’s likelihood of drinking alcohol and feeling depressed, which affects their babies’ development.

The study, which appeared in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, highlights the importance of engaging partners in intervention and prevention efforts to help pregnant women avoid drinking alcohol. A baby’s prenatal alcohol exposure carries the risk of potential lifelong problems, including premature birth, delayed infant development, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD).

“The findings emphasize how many factors influence alcohol use during pregnancy,” says lead author Carson Kautz-Turnbull, a third-year graduate student in the Department of Psychology whose interests lie in FASD intervention work and reaching underserved populations, including racial minorities, rural populations, and low-income groups. “The more we learn about these factors, the more we can reduce stigma around drinking during pregnancy and help in a way that’s empowering and meaningful,” Kautz-Turnbull says. Read more.

Parents of children with the most complex medical conditions are more likely to report poor or fair mental health and struggle to find community help, according to a study by researchers at Medical Center and Golisano Children’s Hospital.

The study in Pediatrics, “A National Mental Health Profile of Parents of Children with Medical Complexity,” examined parent-reported data from the National Survey of Children’s Health, and compared three groups: households of children with medical complexity (CMC), households of noncomplex children with special health care needs, and households of children without special health care needs.

CMC are defined as the 1 percent of children with the most complex medical conditions. They tend to have multiple chronic health conditions and disabilities, and frequently use health care services. Examples of CMC include those with cerebral palsy, serious congenital heart defects, or genetic disorders. Given these children’s significant needs, their caregivers are challenged to balance treating their child with completing other family responsibilities.

The study found the following:

• About 20 percent of parents of CMC reported poor or fair mental health, more than 5 times the proportion of parents of children who did not have medical problems.
• In addition, 36 percent of parents of CMC reported not knowing where to go for help in their community when they encounter difficulties, which was more than 2 times the proportion of parents of children who did not have medical problems.

These findings indicate that health care systems should be proactive in trying to serve parents of CMC and provide support resources, and that mental health should be prioritized, according to lead author Nathaniel Bayer, assistant professor and pediatric hospitalist at Golisano Children’s Hospital.

“As we partner with these families, we need to make sure we’re taking care of the parents as well as the children,” says Bayer.

Only 15 percent of parents of CMC reported access to peer support groups, which are critical for families to be able to exchange ideas and support each other, according to Bayer. To help address these gaps, hospitals should offer peer-to-peer support groups and grow family advisory councils to support the health and emotional wellness of caregivers of CMC. Read more.

Nanoparticles have great potential for delivering therapeutic drugs to specific locations in the body, increasing the drugs’ potency and reducing side effects. However, the poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and other “anti-fouling” materials used as coatings to stabilize and protect nanoparticles from proteins in blood too often trigger an immune response. The nanoparticles end up being absorbed into the mononuclear phagocyte system, whose cells engulf and destroy bacteria, viruses, and, of particular relevance to this work, other foreign substances, and can potentially trigger an antibody-mediated immune response.

This problem was highlighted when a small number of people who received the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine suffered severe allergic reactions, believed to be triggered by the PEG used on the nanoparticles that deliver the vaccine’s active ingredient, messenger RNA.

An team of researchers led by Danielle Benoit, professor of biomedical engineering, director of the Materials Science Program, and an expert in nanoparticle drug delivery systems, will address this problem with support of a $543,982 grant from the National Science Foundation. Benoit’s collaborators are co-PI’s Andrew White, associate professor of chemical engineering and an expert in computer-designed molecular simulation who is also affiliated with the Materials Science Program, and Minsoo Kim, professor of microbiology and immunology and of pharmacology and physiology at the Medical Center.

The goal is to develop computationally designed zwitterionic peptides with semi-randomized sequences (srZIPs) to create a new class of more diverse anti-fouling options that will help nanoparticles better evade the body’s immune system and end up at their intended targets. This will also help minimize allergic reactions and other long-term immunological side effects. The collaboration is a result of the biomedical materials interdisciplinary research group – one of six key research groups established in the Materials Science Program since Benoit took over as director.

The University’s Clinical Health Informatics Core is offering four grants of $10,000 to $20,000 each for projects that use patient-reported and other patient-related data to support innovative clinical and operational strategies.

Apply online by Monday, August 23. For further information on how to apply, contact Sue Hauptman.